[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 21 (Thursday, January 31, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 753-754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-00393]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: 
Public Comment Request; Information Collection Request Title: Healthy 
Start Evaluation and Quality Improvement, OMB No. 0915-0338--Revision

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department 
of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirement of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on proposed data 
collection projects, HRSA announces plans to submit an Information 
Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, HRSA seeks 
comments from the public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any 
other aspect of the ICR.

DATES: Comments on this Information Collection Request must be received 
no later than April 1, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to [email protected] or mail the HRSA 
Information Collection Clearance Officer, Room 14N136B, 5600 Fishers 
Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and 
draft instruments, email [email protected] or call Lisa Wright-
Solomon, the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer at (301) 
443-1984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: When submitting comments or requesting 
information, please include the information request collection title 
for reference.
    Information Collection Request Title: Healthy Start Evaluation and 
Quality Improvement. OMB No. 0915-0338--Revision.
    Abstract: The National Healthy Start Program, funded through HRSA's 
Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), has the goal of reducing 
disparities in infant mortality and adverse perinatal outcomes. The 
program began as a demonstration project with 15 grantees in 1991 and 
has expanded since then to 100 grantees across 37 states and 
Washington, DC. Healthy Start grantees operate in communities with 
rates of infant mortality at least 1.5 times the U.S. national average 
and high rates for other adverse perinatal outcomes. These communities 
are often low-income and geographically, racially, ethnically, and 
linguistically diverse areas. Healthy Start offers services during the 
perinatal period (before, during, after pregnancy) and the program 
works with women and infants through the first 18 months after birth. 
The Healthy Start program pursues four goals: (1) Improve women's 
health, (2) improve family health and wellness, (3) promote systems 
change, and (4) assure impact and effectiveness. Over the past few 
years, MCHB has sought to implement a uniform set of data elements for 
monitoring and conducting an evaluation to assess grantees' progress 
towards these program goals. Under the current OMB approval, the data 
collection instruments for this evaluation include the following: The 
National Healthy Start Program Survey; Community Action Network Survey; 
Healthy Start Site Visit Protocol; Healthy Start Participant Focus 
Group Protocol; and six (6) client-level screening tools: (1) 
Demographic Intake Form, (2) Pregnancy Status/History, (3) 
Preconception, (4) Prenatal, (5) Postpartum, and (6) Interconception/
Parenting.
    In this proposed revision, MCHB plans to retain the client-level 
tools as well as the National Healthy Start Program Survey, and 
eliminate the Community Action Network Survey, Healthy Start Site Visit 
Protocol and Healthy Start Participant Focus Group Protocol 
instruments. For the 6 client-level tools, MCHB plans to consolidate 
them into three (3) tools: (1) Background, (2) Prenatal, and (3) 
Parenting Information. The purpose of these changes is to reduce time 
burden on grantees, interviewers, and participants by eliminating items 
that are duplicated across the forms. In addition to consolidating 
questions across tools, many individual items have been eliminated or 
reworded in order to focus the evaluation more clearly on program 
performance measures. This will shorten the revised instruments, focus 
them more clearly on a single purpose, and increase consideration of 
participant sensitivities to certain types of questions. The reduced 
time burden should increase overall completion of the individual 
client-level forms by participants, and reduce the number of skipped 
items within each form.
    Need and Proposed Use of the Information: The purpose of the 
revised data collection instruments will be to assess grantee and 
client-level progress towards meeting Healthy Start program performance 
measures. The data will be used to conduct ongoing performance 
monitoring of the program, thus meeting program needs for 
accountability, programmatic decision-making, and ongoing quality 
assurance.
    Likely Respondents: For the General Background, Prenatal, and 
Parenting Information client-level forms, respondents include pregnant 
women and women of reproductive age who are served by the Healthy Start 
program. For the National Healthy Start Program Survey, respondents 
include project directors and staff for each of the grantees.
    Burden Statement: Burden in this context means the time expended by 
persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide the 
information requested. This includes the time needed to review 
instructions; to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and 
systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying 
information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and 
providing information; to train personnel to be able to respond to a 
collection of information; to search data sources; to complete and 
review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise 
disclose the information. The total annual burden hours estimated for 
this ICR are summarized in the table below.

[[Page 754]]



                                     Total Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                     Number of                    Average burden
            Form name                Number of     responses per       Total       per response    Total burden
                                    respondents     respondent       responses      (in hours)         hours
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General Background Form.........        * 45,000               1          45,000             .30          13,500
Prenatal........................        * 30,000               1          30,000             .10           3,000
Parenting.......................        * 30,000               1          30,000             .25           7,500
National Healthy Start Program               100               1             100            2.00             200
 Web Survey.....................
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
    Total.......................         105,100  ..............         105,100  ..............          24,200
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*All participants (45,000) complete the General Background form, and a subset of these same individuals (30,000)
  also complete the Prenatal or Parenting forms for total of 105,100 responses.

    HRSA specifically requests comments on (1) the necessity and 
utility of the proposed information collection for the proper 
performance of the agency's functions, (2) the accuracy of the 
estimated burden, (3) ways to enhance the quality and utility of the 
information to be collected, and (4) the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the 
information collection burden.

Amy P. McNulty,
Acting Director, Division of the Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2019-00393 Filed 1-30-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4165-15-P